Weekly Takes - Monday, November 7 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, November 7 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs convincing win over the Flyers on Wednesday…

1. John Tavares

2. Auston Matthews

3. Denis Malgin

Three takeaways…

1. This was the best performance of the season from the Leafs bottom six.

2. These are the exact type of wins that the Leafs need to have against bottom-dwellers. Total dominance.

3. Tavares is all the way back. He is playing his best hockey since his first season with Toronto. He has been the biggest bright spot thus far for the Leafs.

2. I did not think to include in my postgame comments what my thoughts were on Matthews not fighting Travis Konecny in the dying minutes of the game on Wednesday, because it did not cross my mind that it would be a topic the next day.

But nonetheless, here we go: Matthews, barring the most extreme circumstance, should not fight. His protection should be up to his teammates, not himself.

People can say “he needs to fight once in a while to keep the flies off of him,” but I think it would have the opposite effect. If Matthews started fighting here and there every time he was being hacked and whacked, teams would start doing it all the time. He is best to ignore it completely and have his teammates stand up for him instead.

3. My three stars from the Leafs most impressive win of the season against the Bruins on Saturday…

1. Tavares

2. William Nylander

3. Alex Kerfoot

I thought Malgin and Matthews were great too.

Another confirmation that this season is going to go exactly as last year’s. A poor start from the team, followed by everyone writing the group off, followed by the team turning it around and beating elite teams.

No idea why they cannot make things easier for themselves, but nonetheless.

4. My three stars from the Leafs win over the Canes on Sunday, which may have been their most impressive win of the Matthews era…

1. Malign

2. Kampf

3. Nylander

They had every reason to lose this game but did not. They were not the better team in the game but they were never going to be. It was always going to be about taking advantage of their opportunities and they did.

They are officially back.

5. Credit to Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe for how they handled the last week.

It would have been very easy for them to start doing the "media rounds" in order to calm the masses and it would have been very easy for Dubas to make some sort of move for the sake of doing so.

But they did not do anything. Rightly or wrongly, this entire franchise believes what they are doing is right. They have the utmost confidence in their plan.

6. I wish the Leafs would have given Nicolas Aube-Kubel more of a chance than they did.

I am confident the top nine, one way or another, will sort itself out, but the fourth line is now a question mark at right wing.

Malign can hold the fort down until the deadline (and perhaps even beyond if he keeps playing the way he has, because he has been excellent) but it sure looks like top-four defencemen and a depth forward will be the two needs for the team heading into the deadline.

7. The Bruins signing of Mitchell Miller is a disgusting, albeit not surprising act.

It is one thing that Miller committed the vile acts that he committed as a young person. If that is where this started and ended, we could have a reasonable conversation as to if he deserves a second chance.

But we can not have that conversation because that is not where this story ends.

Miller tormented and harmed a black, disabled child for years, tried to paint himself as the victim, and did not apologize to the victim or his family until last week, only doing so because it was a checkmark that he had to check off prior to the Bruins being able to sign him.

And it was an apology over Instagram at that.

Just an embarrassing, awful look for the Bruins.

It is the league’s version of the Deshaun Watson trade, except in this case, the act was as bad as it gets and Miller was never going to be a franchise-saving player.

8. It sucks seeing the Astros win another championship, given their history, but the reality is they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

They are the gold standard for running a baseball team in 2022.

Plus, Dusty Baker finally won, so that is nice.

9. Outside of a major trade for a star player that sees a core piece going the other way, which I do not see happening during the season, the Raptors biggest focus between now and the deadline is going to have to be landing a backup point guard.

Dalano Banton and Malachi Flynn are not the answer for this season.

Their last shot to prove otherwise is going to be during this upcoming stretch without Pascal Siakam. The Raptors will badly need a playmaker when Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes are not on the court.

10. Speaking of VanVleet, he showed in Sunday’s win against the Bulls how important he is to the Raptors, despite a weird narrative that began to bubble up earlier in the week that the Raptors are actually better off without him.

There are simply not many players in the league that do what VanVleet does and how those things correlate to winning games.

11. I wrote last week that the Nets had a decision to make with Kyrie Irving and they made the right one after giving him every opportunity to right his wrongs.

He is a simpleton masked as a “free thinker.” This has always been who he is.

12. My thoughts on each notable NFL trade deadline trade…

• The Jaguars hit a home run by acquiring Calvin Ridley for the price that they got him for. He was on his way to being a number one wide receiver in the NFL before he got suspended for something he should not have gotten suspended for.

• I like the Broncos getting a first-round pick for Bradley Chubb. He is a great player, but an often injured one and a soon-to-be highly-paid one at that.

• The Steelers getting a second-round pick for Chase Claypool is a tidy bit of business. Claypool has all the talent in the world to be a high-end wide receiver, but he has been anything but since his outstanding rookie season. Acquiring a top-50 pick in the draft is a no-brainer move for Pittsburgh.

• I love the T.J Hockenson trade for the Vikings, who truly have one of the better offences in football as long as they are not playing on prime time. I despise it for the Lions though, who at some point have to stop rebuilding.

13. My Week 10 NFL picks…

• Falcons (-2.5)

• Seahawks (+2.5)

• Jaguars (+10.5)

• Texans (+6.5)

• Vikings (+8.5)

• Bears (-2.5)

• Saints (-2.5)

• Browns (+4.5)

• Titans (-2)

• Colts (+5.5)

• Cowboys (-4.5)

• Cardinals (+4)

• 49ers (-4.5)

• Commanders (+10.5)

I went 8-4 in Week 9, with MNF still pending.

On the season, I am now 59-70.

14. My top four college football teams, after another memorable College Football Saturday…

1. Georgia

2. Ohio State

3. Michigan

4. Tennessee

The top two teams are locks barring stunning, historic upsets. Tennessee should win out and that should be enough to get them in.

Michigan can afford a loss but not two and with their tough schedule, it is possible.

If they were to lose twice and fall out, Clemson will still have a shot, as will Oregon, albeit Oregon’s schedule is quite tough. The winner of USC/UCLA will have one as well.

It is tough to see a path for TCU and Ole Miss, as well as all the two-loss teams. That includes LSU, even though they provided one of the best college football moments in recent memory.

15. Getting political for a moment. There is something chilling about right-wing politicians in Ontario deeming a union strike “illegal.”

Rhetoric and actions such as these ones are typically reserved for China, Russia, Iran, etc. Not a “free” country like Canada.

But this is who Doug Ford has been throughout his entire time as Premier. He does not value education and he certainly does not value the right of voters.

Remember this in 2026.